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In an Education World e-interview, national school crisis expert Scott
Poland discusses the multiple causes and similarities of school violence,
and he offers specific strategies that may help prevent more school violence.
A member of the National Emergency Assistance Team that responds to school
shootings across the nation, Poland is presently on location in Santee,
California, the location of one of the most recent school shootings. From
there, Poland offers Education World readers his unique insight about
the causes of and solutions to school violence and threats of violence.
Included: Remedies for the multiple causes of school
violence!

About
Scott Poland

A member of the National Association of School Psychologists
National
Emergency Assistance Team (NEAT), which responds to school
shootings across the nation, psychologist Scott Poland is
able to offer unique insight about the causes of and solutions
to school violence and threats of violence. He is currently
in Santee, California, providing long-term crisis intervention
in response to the recent school shootings at Santana High
School. Poland has also responded to school shootings in Littleton,
Colorado, and Jonesboro, Arkansas; and he was a member of
the U.S. Department of Education's assessment team following
the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City
in 1995.

Poland has written extensively about school crisis intervention
and school violence. His works include Coping With Crisis:
Quick Reference Guide, (Sopris
West, 2000) and Coping With Crisis: Lessons Learned(Sopris
West, 1999). He was also a consultant for the U.S. Department
of Education's booklet Early
Warning, Timely Response; A Guide to Safe Schools, which
was sent to every school in the United States in 1998.

Poland is currently president of the National
Association of School Psychologists (NASP), and he will
continue to fulfill NASP responsibilities as past president
during 2001-2002. He plans to return to Cypress-Fairbanks
Independent School District as director of psychological services
in Houston, Texas, in the fall.

Scott Poland, Ed.D., a nationally recognized expert on school crisis, talked
this week with Education World about what schools, parents, and policymakers
should do differently to stem the tide of school violence and threats of
school violence.

Education World: For the past few years, you and other members
of the National Association of School Psychologists have offered advice
on how to prevent school violence. What do schools need to do differently
to help prevent more violence?

Scott Poland: Districts continue to build large schools that
create environments for student anonymity. Even though schools must be
designed to accommodate large numbers of students, they need to be made
to seem smaller. Obvious ways to create a sense of ownership and belonging
are to

involve students to seek solutions for school safety through student
pledges,

recruit students for participation on task forces,

build relationships with students,

provide more extracurricular opportunities.

I ask, "Why are we sending students home from school at 2:30 in the afternoon?
Is there something safe, supervised, and productive for them to be doing?
Wouldn't our communities and children be far safer if there were more organized
activities for them to participate in?" We must use a multitude of safety
approaches when it comes to keeping the campus safe from violence. Metal
detectors and increased police presence are not enough.

Our law enforcement and educational staff must work at developing relationships
with students that encourage them to come forward when they know something
is about to happen. Our students need to know that their concerns will
be honored. We need to end the bullying that happens in our hallways,
playgrounds, bathrooms, and lockers. Those signs that say "No Drugs, No
Weapons" should also say "No Bullying," and we should mean it!

EW: What do parents need to do differently?

Poland: Parents need to get more involved, especially in the
lives of their teenagers. As adults, we need to recognize that what we
do, our children will copy. Gandhi said, "What we do speaks so loudly
that when we talk, our children cannot hear us."

We also need to stop setting up our children's rooms like little kingdoms.
When they have their own televisions, telephones, computers with Internet
access, and music, they have no reason to leave their rooms and interact
with us. Parents should monitor the activities their children are involved
in and who their friends are. As parents, we also need to practice responsible
gun ownership. Be certain that your gun is not accessible to your child!
Be more involved at school and serve on school or district safety task
forces. Talk to your children about tough issues, but "reach, don't preach."

EW: Schools are microcosms of our culture. What can others --
those outside of schools and families -- do differently to stem school
violence?

Poland: Society needs to recognize the origins of youth violence,
which are

child abuse and ineffective parenting,

violence in the home,

media violence,

prejudice,

substance abuse,

gun access,

poverty.

Citizens need to support legislation that addresses all of these!

EW: Why are more children troubled today?

Poland: Children today are under extensive pressure to academically
achieve more than they have ever achieved before. Television and theater
productions have changed so dramatically that viewers are exposed to extreme
amounts of media violence. More children have access to guns in the household
than ever before, and there is increasingly less parental supervision
as adults put in longer hours in the work world.

EW: As part of the National Emergency Assistance Team, you have
responded to the tragedies in Littleton, Jonesboro, West Paducah, and
most recently, in Santee, California. Reflecting on those schools, on
the shooters, and on the communities in which the tragedies happened,
do you see more similarities or differences?

Poland: I see similarities in the shootings in these communities.
Someone always knew about the violent plans of these perpetrators, because
they talked about what they were going to do. We need to help children
"end the conspiracy of silence" by developing relationships with students
that creates an environment for them to feel compelled to tell an adult
when they hear anything suspicious. Many of the shooters were bullied
and many were suicidal; we must be more active with strategies to prevent
teen suicide, and the suicide prevention initiatives from the Surgeon
General need to be funded by Congress!

EW: As you travel around the country as NASP president, what
do you see a big need for?

Poland: More mental health professionals in schools would be
a start toward meeting the needs of our teenagers today. Counselors see
themselves primarily as schedulers and special education assessors. Willy
Sutton, the bank robber, was asked, "Why did you rob all those banks?"
He replied, "Because, that's where the money is." Why should we deliver
mental health and medical services at school? Because that is where the
children are every day of the week. But counselors are told not to pull
the students out of academic class periods because they might fall behind!
Remember Maslow's hierarchy: the needs of safety and security must be
taken care of before children can concentrate on learning.

Finally, Congress needs to pass the School Counselor Education Act,
which will increase funding for mental health professionals such as school
counselors and social workers.